Breakdown of همکارا تو کار من دخالت نمیکنن، مگر اینکه من بخوام.
من
I
درdar
in
کارkâr
work
همکارhamkâr
colleague
خواستنkhâstan
to want / to ask (request from someone)
اینکهin-ke
that (conjunction)
مگرmagar
unless / perhaps (used in tags)
دخالت کردنdekhâlat kardan
to interfere
Questions & Answers about همکارا تو کار من دخالت نمیکنن، مگر اینکه من بخوام.
Why do we use the subjunctive form بخوام at the end of the sentence?
The phrase مگر اینکه means unless and sets up a conditional or hypothetical situation. In Farsi, verbs following مگر اینکه must be in the present subjunctive form. Here, بخوام is the everyday spoken subjunctive form of بخواهم (I want).
The English translation ends with unless I want them to, but the Farsi just says بخوام (I want). Do we need to translate the rest?
No, Farsi often drops the object or the rest of the clause when it is completely obvious from context. Saying من بخوام (I want) is perfectly natural; you do not need to repeat the verb for interfere or add an object pronoun.
There are a lot of spoken shortcuts in this sentence. What would it look like in formal, written Farsi?
In formal writing, it would be: همکاران در کار من دخالت نمیکنند، مگر اینکه من بخواهم. In everyday speech, همکاران becomes همکارا, در becomes تو, the final letter in نمیکنند is dropped to make نمیکنن, and بخواهم shrinks to بخوام.
Why does the sentence use تو before کار من?
The compound verb دخالت کردن means to interfere. When you interfere in something, Farsi uses the preposition در (in). Here, تو is simply the common spoken version of در.
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